Mumbai: Indian actor Manoj Bajpayee has won the best performance award by an actor at the 10th Asia Pacific Screen Awards beating Nawazuddin Siddiqui, who was awarded a special mention in the same category.

Bajpayee won the award for his performance as Professor Siras in Aligarh directed by Hansal Mehta. This was his second APSA nomination, following a nomination for Anurag Kashyap's Gangs of Wasseypur in 2012.

The Shahid director congratulated the ‘Satya actor on twitter. He wrote, “Happy, happy! @BajpayeeManoj wins Best Actor at @APScreenAwards for his #Aligarh masterclass. A huge, huge honour. Manoj, I love you!”

APSA International Jury member Jan Chapman said "It was superb, such a moving performance, I was really affected by the humanity and the depth"

Shyam Benegal, who was also part of the jury, said "He gave such an extraordinarily fine performance, extremely well delineated with lots of little detail that he put into the performance, an extremely well-crafted role."

Nawazuddin won the award for his role in Kashyap's Raman Raghav 2.0.

In addition to the main awards, a jury grand prize special mention was given to eight-year-old Sunny Pawar from India for his portrayal of young Saroo Brierley in Garth Davis' Lion.

Winners in the 10th Asia Pacific Screen Awards, said to be the region's highest accolade in film, were announced at a glittering ceremony in Brisbane last night.